We can learn to love others by closely observing how God loves us and all of creation. -Richard Rohr

The other day I read this passage from Depak Chopra:

Everyone has heard the expression, ‘what you sew is what you reap.’ Obviously if we want to create happiness in our lives, we must learn to sow the seeds of happiness. Therefore karma implies the action of conscious choice-making.

And I felt empowered to choose my own happiness. It may sound kind of silly, but this notion really struck a chord with me in a new way. Parenting three teenagers, striving to be a supportive spouse, working to keep connected with my family and friends, feeling busy and at times overwhelmed (again!) with work and life….sometimes it can feel like a lot. Reminding myself of my own agency to choose happiness in my life has been grounding.

Thank God for dogs and music (like the picture depicts!), and family and friends, and faith in the goodness of others. Blessings on your week ahead!

Humility begets gratitude. -Mike Quinn

Nothing like a good ole Irish Catholic funeral to keep one grounded! This morning I attended services for the mother of a long-time colleague who I respect for his integrity, wit, and values. In both his Eulogy, and in the priest’s sermon, reflections noted how beautifully optimism and community can foster kindness in our world. I couldn’t agree more!

I am pacing myself on the home front as the opening weeks of the new school year give way to the increased ebb and flow of afterschool activities and weekend commitments. A Labor Day getaway to the beach with our friends and family this past weekend fed my soul for the adventures on the horizon. Blessings on your week ahead!

Labor Day Prayer

God our Creator, we are the work of your hands.

Guide us in our work, that we may do it, not for self alone, but for the common good.

Make us alert to injustice, ready to stand in solidarity, that there may be dignity for all in labor and in labor’s reward.

Amen.

Prayer for Hope in Action

We must be ready to expect the unexpected from God.
The ways of Providence are, by nature, surprising.
God is here, near us,
unforeseeable and loving.

We are People of hope
because we believe the Holy Spirit is at work
in the Church and in the world,
even where God’s name remains unheard.

We are People of hope
because the prophets and saints, in times of darkness,
discovered a spring of grace,
and shed beams of light on our path.

To hope is a duty, not a luxury.
To hope is not to dream,
but to turn dreams into reality.
Happy are those who dream dreams
and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

– Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens (1904-1996)

Looking without judgment, we can understand, and compassion is born. -Thich Nhat Hinh

Yesterday my leadership coach had me run through a helpful exercise. I listed out all my stressors and anxieties and then she asked me to circle the items over which I have control, and then place squares around the items over which I have no control. As we reviewed them I was pleasantly relieved to be reminded of how few areas over which I actually have control. She also encouraged me to change my phrasing from, “I worry about ____,” to “I pray for____.”

Subtle shifts in thinking and language can add valued perspective and enhance mental and spiritual health. And walks in nature help too! Today I am grateful for community and for all the trusted advisors in my life. Blessings on your week ahead!

Self Awareness in Leadership- Sr. Pat Kozak, CSJ

Self awareness- we might also call it humility- enables us to recognize the service we can offer and the gifts we have been given to share. It also opens us to seek help, to know our limitations, and to welcome the gifts of others. Strength and vulnerability – an ironic combination – are essential components of community where everyone is needed and everyone has worth.

Today may be the day to pay attention, to open our eyes and see both the gifts and the needs present among us, and to give thanks for the community they create.

We can only love by loving. -Iris Murdoch

My three kids in three different schools each had their first day of the new academic year in this past week and life has been a flurry of activity on the home front. They’re happy and having fun, which means I am relieved! My daily walks with Brigid and Bingo continue to keep me focused and light on my feet and in my soul…today our dog picked up her millionth stick to proudly bring back home to our backyard and she could not have been happier….may your week ahead be a blessed one and may we all delight in the simple pleasures of every day.

Trust in God- Saint Francis de Sales

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow.

The same loving Father

who cares for you today

will care for your tomororw

and every day.

Either he will shield you from suffering

or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace, then,

and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.

When I slow down enough to smell the roses, I usually see the beauty and all else that is ours to share. -Morgan Jennings

This week I share a reflection on the faith aspect of the concept of welcoming the stranger. This important principle has shaped my own approach to hospitality, and resonates with me as a parent at this time of year as two of my three children are welcomed into new school communities. As a society I think it beneficial for us to remind ourselves of how valuable diverse perspectives contribute toward positive experiences of community.

Blessings on your week ahead!

On Welcoming the Stranger

The role of the stranger in our lives is vital in the context of Christian faith, for the God of faith is one who continually speaks truth afresh, who continually makes all things new. God persistently challenges conventional truth and regularly upsets the world’s way of looking at things. It is no accident that this God is so often represented by the stranger, for the truth that God speaks in our lives is very strange indeed. Where the world sees impossibility, God sees potential. Where the world sees insecurity, God sees occasions for faith. Where the world sees death, God proclaims life. God uses the stranger to shake us from our conventional points of view, to remove the scales of worldly assumptions from our eyes. God is a stranger to us, and it is at the risk of missing God’s truth that we domesticate God, reduce God to the role of familiar friend.

(Parker Palmer, The Company of Strangers: Christians and the Renewal of America’s Public Life, New York: Crossroad, 1983, p. 59)

Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself. -St. Francis de Sales

This week I share a reflection and a poem that speak to our need to consider others, and context (always), in our decision-making and in our lives. I have enjoyed some recent time in deep reflection and emerge from these summer weeks with gratitude and appreciation for my community of support. The new school year has begun, at home and at work, and I love the freshness that the new beginnings of each academic year provides. Like this image from a recent plane ride, I find that summer expands and renews my perspective on many fronts. God is good!

Blessings on your week ahead.

Discipleship –Fr. Richard Gula

The challenge of discipleship is to be faithful and creative witnesses to the mission of Jesus to proclaim God’s inclusive love. We do so by living according to a set of values that enshrine self-sacrifice: meeting hatred with kindness, hurt with healing, bitterness with graciousness, jealousy with affirmation, conflict with nonviolence, suffering with compassion.

Discipleship requires bonds of support in solidarity with others- not grabbing for honor and glory, but offering selfless service marked by kindness and generosity so that violence is not inevitable.

Remember

by: Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,

know each of the star’s stories.

Remember the moon, know who she is.

Remember the sun’s birth at dawn,

that is the strongest point of time

Remember sundown

and the giving away to night.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled

to give you form and breath.  You are evidence of

her life, and her mother’s, and hers.

Remember your father.  He is your life, also.

Remember the earth whose skin you are:

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth,

brown earth, we are earth.

Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their

tribes, their families, their histories too.  Talk to them,

listen to them.  They are alive poems.

Remember the wind.  Remember her voice.  She is the origin of this universe.

Remember you are all people and all people are you.

Remember you are this universe and this universe is you.

Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.

Remember language comes from this.

Remember the dance language is, that life is.

Remember.

God is always present and looking to connect with us. We just need to invite God to the table and listen. -Rebecca Ruiz

I am enjoying a break from my computer these weeks and am basking in the summer beauty of California along with some quality time with my family. I am happy to share this below reflection, and two links from musicians who inspire me, as resources for gratitude, faith, and recognizing God’s presence. Blessings on your weeks ahead!

God’s Presence– Sr. Anita Louise Lowe

If I think about it and and are open, I think each of us could name an occasion in which we encountered God’s presence in a rather unlikely place or manner. Such times are reminders that God is always with ys. May we open our eyes and hearts to see and to recognize that presence of God, even in the most unlikely place.

Lord, in our work and play we know your goodness and love. Bless us with joy as we set out for our days of vacation. -Give Us This Day

I am counting my blessings as I head into the long holiday weekend ahead. Yesterday we played tourists in our own town, walking out our door as a family for a morning hike, followed by brunch and then strolling around Chinatown and the Little Italy neighborhoods of San Francisco. I love where I live and enjoy it even more when we can have leisurely- yet active- time as a family, sampling yummy culinary fare while gallivanting all around the City. God is good.

This week I share a couple NPR Tiny Desk Concerts that have entertained me in recent days. The value of national public radio as an entity, and the arts in general, have been questioned by some. I could not be more grateful for the gift of free press, music, and the gifts and talents of the artists who enlighten my life. Blessings on your week ahead!

We will never come to know our true vocation unless we are willing to grapple with the radical claim the gospel places upon us. -Fr. Henri Nouwen

It’s almost full summer break in my household and our whole clan is ready for a change of pace and some quality time together. As the son of a teacher, and an educator for 25 years, I have lived on an academic year cycle my entire life. I look forward to the rejuvenation and rest ahead!

This week I share an article from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, along with two YouTube links that I came across last night. Enjoy and blessings on your week ahead!

Joy Begets Joy

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, host of the CAC podcast Love Period, reminds us to choose joy amid life’s difficulties:  

Friends, I believe the bold path to making our lives and the world better is fundamentally lit by the radical, fierce love that all the major religions preach. Though we are outraged by injustice, we don’t get there with just our outrage. We need to get there with our joy, which—according to my friend Father Richard Rohr—is both a decision and a surrender. It’s a decision to look around and recognize and value what is good, what is lovely, what is inspirational—and let that delight us. It’s surrendering to the fact that there is not much we can control in life, but our reactions are within our control. Recognizing joy and embracing it—these are our decisions to make.… 

On any given day, your joy might be quiet and peace-filled, tucked way down in your belly. Your joy might be extroverted and raucous, making you dance, sing, and shout. Do you with your joy, be you with your joy, feel it your own way. Every day, like brushing your teeth, focus on it, find it, be fueled by it. It’s inside you, waiting to resource you. To build your resistance and resilience. It will support you, whether in your movement-building or when making sandwiches for your children. It will help you stand up for the other and stand in line for an inoculation. Joy powers kindness; joy begets joy.  

Joy is an essential need for the thriving of the human spirit. Without it, we are diminished and too often left with the festering of our wounds, resentments, and fears. Joy is that feeling of well-being, pleasure, and happiness that accompanies us as we move through life. It alters the way we see the world, its people, and ourselves. Joy tints our perspective with optimism and the confidence that we will go through the hard things, and though we might be bruised or battered, we’ll come out on the other side. Joy is the wellspring of resistance, the water of life. Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and smile from the inside out. There, there it is. Can you feel it? That’s joy! 

The fullness of joy is to contemplate God in everything. -Julian of Norwich

I found this morning’s Psalm reading (146) to be a beautiful reflection of the awesome, healing power of God and God’s love. Recent weeks in our country have caused great unrest among some, most especially our immigrant communities. At a recent gathering in Chicago to honor Pope Leo XIV, the Cardinal of that Archdiocese offered insightful remarks about the value of human life. I share them with you as a reminder of God’s abundant love for each and every one of us, most especially those in greatest need. Blessings on your week ahead!

Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archdiocese of Chicago- June 15, 2025

“They [our country’s immigrants] are here due to a broken immigration system which both parties have failed to fix,” he said to cheers from many in the stands. “They are here not by invasion but invitation: to harvest the fruits of the earth that feed our families, an invitation to clean our tables, homes and hotel rooms, an invitation to landscape our lawns, and yes even an invitation to care for our children and elderly.”

Noting that it was the day before Trinity Sunday, a celebration of the Christian doctrine of the three persons of God, he said that the value of human life is defined by the fact of being loved by God.

Christians have an obligation, he said, to reject “language or activity that demonizes and degrades the dignity of others, that pretends that some persons are unworthy to be connected to us.”